Religious liberty is a two way street, the right to believe and the right not to believe. Not only that but if you do believe, how much and what part. In New South Wales, parents are fight for the right to teach ethics classes instead of scripture classes. The state allows scripture to be taught in schools but a parent can opt out. If a parent opts out, the child is apparently placed in another school room or the school library and does nothing. A group of parents have advocated for ethics classes as an alternative to the scripture classes. This would allow parents to choose not between scripture training and nothing but between scripture training and ethics training.

This just makes sense.

A pilot program was launched and students were given the choice which class to take. Some students in the scripture classes opted to take the ethics classes instead. There has been an outcry from the Catholic and other groups advocating for scriptural education. They don’t have the field all to themselves, though.

In the United States, we already had this lovely opt out provision in a different format. We used to have prayer in the morning of school each day. If a student opted out he could stand out in the hallway while everybody else prayed. I’m old enough to have prayed in public schools before the Supreme Court ruling. At my school, they didn’t bother to give me or the other children a choice to not participate in the prayer, but in other schools they did. I’ve talked and read accounts of people who stood in those hallways, they didn’t think much of it. It was only for a few minutes but I guess it seemed like a long time for them.

All these people advocating for a change want is a choice between scripture and ethics teaching. The current choice is between taking a scripture class and sitting in (what in America is known as) study hall. The current choice is strongly stacked in favor of scripture class. A choice is supposed to be a choice.

James Pilant